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Comment by whb07 | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what would happen if G/F just upped and "left" the EU? Ensuring to close every physical location as they did so. I wonder how much of a bind the politicians would be trying to remain in power as they would be in the position of trying to add Google and Facebook to the ban list or just continuing like normal except with less tax revenue.

Does anyone here really believe that any EU bureaucrat would ban Facebook and Google? Enforce a massive ban like China or some dictatorship? I think it's one thing to never have had. It's another to have had and then have it taken away. The latter is infinitely more painful.

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Do you honestly think that without US companies, there will be no search engines and social networks? Here in the Netherlands we had Hyves[1] before we had Facebook, which was pretty big. If, for whatever reason, Facebook were to vanish tomorrow from the EU tomorrow, I have little doubt that we'd all be on a different social network by Christmas. Of course there would be a lot of complaining during the first two weeks. I would miss Google more than I would Facebook, but perhaps an influx of 500 million new users would give competing search engines the income to improve their results to equal those of Google (perhaps they're already of comparable quality and I just haven't noticed).

Google and Facebook are making a lot of money in the EU, and leaving the EU because they have to pay more taxes would be like cutting off the nose to spite the face. It just wouldn't make financial sense, and shareholders would (understandably) be furious.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyves

Google and Facebook have a lot more to lose than the EU in this regard, which is why they will eventually submit to whatever the EU deems reasonable.

They are never going to withdraw from the EU. The money they would lose would be immense.

The fact that people think Google and Facebook have this kind of power over a developed market of 500 million people is hilarious.

And leave one of the biggest markets in the world? Why would they?

Why would they be leaving it? I can easily connect to a Russian website with servers in Moscow just fine from anywhere in the world. The same applies to EU citizens.

I'm a strong believer in freedom, to include freedom from unnecessary taxation. If G/F "leaves" EU, I meant it by closing physical locations and the farce they have to put up with for taxes, they could still serve citizens from EU.

Id love to see the story unfold if G/F said "we are American companies only going to pay US taxes" and they quickly closed offices in EU. Do you think EU would create a firewall removing citizens from Facebook/instagram/Gmail/Google search etc ?

Seems to me that in this crazy scenario the EU crooked politicians are left making threats they can't really follow through. They all probably use gmail and how easy is it exactly to start a new on an email account ? How about all your contacts and pictures on FB?

Seems to me that in this world F/G would operate just the same and EU politicians would walk away crying saying "you can't do that it's not fair "

Is unnecessary taxation all taxation? By your argument every company should just find whatever the lowest tax area of the world is and set up their headquarters there, no one will be able to stop them!

Also, if you believe in freedom, why don't you believe that countries have the freedom to stop these massive corporations from extracting wealth from their society and returning nothing? Why does only the corporations freedom matter?

Corporations don't have money. It's also a giant cat and mouse game, governments want to tax and companies want to minimize that. So you end up with weird situations like Apple and Google hoarding cash because they don't know how to put it to work and they sure as shit don't want to lose it to the taxman[0].

So if you substantially lowered or entirely removed corporate taxes they would bring that money back to the US and spend it in R&D or capital investments, or return it in large forms to shareholders via dividends!

What oh what, do people usually do when they get sudden influxes of cash? They spend it or re invest it! They don't just bury it or burn the cash for warmth like Pablo Escobar. That seems like a better end goal than having the cash idly sitting abroad or being spent by crooked politicians who by virtue of being in office propose to be holier than thou and always manage to spend money not earned by themselves

I don't subscribe to your second paragraph at all. "Extract wealth" how? I'm from the third world and I can instantly tell you the great value that people derive from applications like What's App and the like. To someone in EU or US it's easy to deride these silly applications, but to those who lack the infrastructure it gives new possibilities.

Take for instance the case of using what's app as a little store where people can offer services/goods. My mother in law dedicates her account on what's app to sell hand knitted baby clothes, and it provides her with reliable communication to clients.

Such applications are a NET BENEFIT to everyone involved and it's clear why What's App was given such a high price tag!

If I might ask what/where you are from that you think this way? I can tell you from personal experience and fundamental Adam Smith basic economics that these companies offer vastly more benefits to consumers and society as a whole than what little money can be taxed from them.

Also note, that Latin American countries and 99% of other countries don't propose to tax the tech companies and they still have vast benefits.

The EU has wealth in it from it's society and economy. The companies are extracting it by coming in, using their power to take control of the market from local companies and then not paying their share in taxes by using every loophole they can find.

Yes they provide a benefit, but you're bringing up Adam Smith like this is a situation with perfect competition. I might be on the wrong side of this and they are providing a benefit big enough thay the EU would get less net benefit from a local company, but can you admit that there could ever be a case where a company was acting in a way that was detrimental?

And next Apple or Amazon leaving the EU?

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